Chapter 17 Ivy
IVY
Despite Valentina’s warning about Ruslan, it’s impossible to stay away from him.
He’s by my side every single day, taking care of me, supplying my medication, helping me back and forth to the bathroom, even as my strength grows.
He remains a loud presence when the doctor returns to take more scans of my head to ensure the bleeding is healing, stands by my side as my poor ankle is examined, and remains in my room every night until I fall asleep.
Weeks trickle by, and before I know it, there’s a warm June sun in the sky, and a month has passed since the disastrous shootout at my parents’ house.
My balance is steady, headaches are a thing of the past since the staples were removed from my forehead, and the thin, pink scar melts easily into my hairline.
With my ankle finally healed enough that I can walk with only a slight twinge deep within the joint, my recovery is almost complete.
The doctor advised that it’ll be tender for some months as ankle injuries don’t always heal completely and told me to be careful.
I promise her I will be and thank her for her diligent care over the past weeks.
Then I look for Cassian. I’ve grown to know the layout of the two-floor apartment like the back of my hand, and after grabbing some coffee from the kitchen, I find Cassian and Ruslan working out together in the gym.
Cassian’s been throwing himself into his recovery, working to regain his lost muscle tone and strengthen himself so his scars heal without issue.
He’s flat on the bench with his fists curled around a bar weighed down with weights I don’t dare count.
Ruslan stands over him at his head, his gaze fixed on the bar and his hands poised in case Cassian gets into trouble.
“Come on,” Ruslan encourages, his bare torso shimmering with a light sweat. “One more. Come on, you fucker, one more.”
Cassian grunts, fighting back a laugh as he strains and roars. The weights lift and he straightens his arms, holding the weight above him for a few seconds. Then Ruslan’s hands come forward and together they haul the bar back onto the supports.
“Fuck,” Cassian groans, his arms flopping down to his sides.
“You good?” Ruslan slaps his shoulder then lifts his head and catches my eye. “Ivy! Look at you.” His eyes travel slowly south and when they reach my bare feet, he smiles. “You get the all-clear?”
“Yup!” I lift my foot and wiggle my ankle. “I’m completely mended.”
Cassian groans and sits up, flashing me a light, exhausted smile. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”
“How are you?” I ask, trying not to stare at the fresh pink scars on his shoulder and back as he stands. “Are you doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” Cassian grunts, grabbing a towel from the nearby bench. “I’m always good.”
Ruslan snorts. “That sounds like code, but he really is fine.”
I narrow my eyes slightly, uncertain. “Are you sure? I kind of wanted to thank you again for—”
“For throwing you out of a window and giving you a brain bleed?” Cassian’s shoulders tighten, then he turns to face me. “You shouldn’t thank me for that.”
Ruslan remains nearby, his eye on us as he thirstily gulps down mouthfuls of water.
“Cassian, you saved my life. You deserve my thanks.”
“Ruslan saved your life. I nearly took it.”
“Cassian—”
“I have to go.” He smiles briefly, a tight curl of the lips that doesn't meet his eyes, and then he leaves the gym.
My pulse quickens. “Is he mad at me?”
“You?” Ruslan gasps as he pulls his head back from his water bottle. “Not at all.”
“He sounded mad.” My hands come together at my abdomen and twist. “Like I did something wrong.”
“It’s not you.” Ruslan lazily walks toward me. “Cassian’s a soft guy. He feels guilty you got hurt.”
“But he saved me.”
“I know.”
“I would have died in that house if he hadn’t pushed me.”
“I know. We all know that. He just needs a little more time. Raven says he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. Think of him like a big teddy bear.”
My mind turns back to when he brought me tea and I nod. “Is there anything I can do to make it easier for him?”
Ruslan finally stops in front of me and despite trying to meet his eyes, I quickly get distracted by a droplet of sweat that rolls slowly down his collarbone and runs slower down between his swollen pecs.
“It’s a guy thing,” Ruslan replies, dragging my eyes back up. “Plus… we’ve spent the past month trying to get answers out of the Russians and the Italians and no one is talking. We’ve hit a wall and it’s time we broke it down.”
I nod slowly, trying to understand Cassian’s view.
I’m alive and I’m eternally grateful to all who have kept me so, but why is he beating himself up so much when I’m right here?
Before I dwell too deeply on it, the other reason I came here buzzes frantically in my pocket and I sigh, gazing up at Ruslan.
“What?” he asks, tilting his head. “You want something.”
“I do.”
“What is it?”
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I flash him the screen to show a dozen missed calls from Moira.
“She’s threatening to go to the police if I don’t meet her in person.
Her man is a conspiracy nut and they’re convinced that I’m either not real or I’m being held against my will.
I keep assuring her that I’m fine, but…”
“But you don’t want her to call attention to you by going to the cops,” Ruslan finishes for me.
I nod. “So I’m going to go and see her.”
His brows lift with a smirk. “You’re telling me?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Not asking?”
“Nope.” I fight my own urge to smile. “Do you have an issue with that?”
Ruslan slowly shakes his head. “No. But I’m coming with you. After last time, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
An excited thrill shoots through my gut and it’s impossible for me to hide my smile while Ruslan turns away and walks toward the shower. “Give me ten!” he calls back.
I don’t reply. I’m far too distracted by the curves of muscle that work back and forth while he strides away. I have zero issue with his going with me. It’s rather exciting to have someone so intent on being by my side.
An hour later, after calling Moira to make sure she’s really home, Ruslan and I turn up on her doorstep with a full security team in tow.
They hang back, melting into the street and her front garden while I knock on her door, but they’re not inconspicuous enough because as soon as she rips open her door with a clatter of chains, she spots them immediately.
“Why… why is there a guy walking through my marigolds—hey!” She surges past both me and Ruslan. “Watch where you’re walking! Do you know how long it took me to get them to grow there?”
The guard in question flinches in fright and immediately vacates his attempts to appear nonchalant near the flowers.
Moira turns to me, her black curls flying, and she clutches at my shoulders.
“You’re here! Oh, my God!” She immediately draws me into a tight hug, then glares back at the guard.
“Seriously. The previous owners used some disgusting mushroom fertilizer that killed all my growth attempts for months. Stay out my garden. Better yet…” She turns back to me. “Who are they?”
Before I can answer, she glimpses Ruslan and her eyes widen. “And who are you?”
“I’m Ruslan.” He holds out a polite hand. “I’m Ivy’s case worker.”
“Case worker?” Moira all but purrs the words as she slowly takes Ruslan’s hand in both of hers. “Surely not. You’re far too handsome to be a cop.”
“Moira!” I grasp her elbow, my cheeks flaring with shame, but she brushes me off, laser-focused on Ruslan.
“Maybe I should get myself into a crazy accident.” She grins, lifting one hand to adjust the bottom of her curls. “If men like you are there to rescue me, what are a few bumps and bruises?”
To my surprise, the warm Ruslan that I know who smiles and jokes doesn’t appear to exist. He regards Moira with a cold look and quickly retracts his hand. “A desire to injure oneself for attention is usually a sign of an unstable mental capacity.”
“Oh, is it?” she smirks. “Are you a doctor as well under all that… muscle?”
“Moira!” Using my hold on her elbow, I drag her into her house with an apologetic look at Ruslan who looks utterly unamused. That in itself is a little thrilling because he’s never looked at me that coldly, not even back when we first met.
“For goodness’ sake, Ivy, I was just having a little fun!” Moira gasps, struggling against me until we reach her quaint kitchen, where I release her.
“You’re engaged,” I hiss, then I pause. “You are still engaged, right?”
“Yes,” Moira sighs sadly. “But saying yes to Callum wasn’t me signing up to be boring.”
“No, just loyal,” I remind her. “It’s like I never left.”
Something quickly changes in Moira and she’s immediately in my face, cupping my shoulders with her thin hands. “Oh, Ivy, it’s been so long!” Finally, a real hug comes and I sink into her hold, closing my eyes as clouds of her minty perfume wash over me.
“It really has.” I clutch at her, and warmth stings behind my eyes. Everything’s been such a whirlwind that I almost forgot what it was like to be back in my normal life, talking to my best friend. “I missed you, Moira.”
“I missed you! I was so worried something serious had happened to you.” She leans back and studies me with a frown. “You look thin. Tired.” She touches my chin. “Ivy, what happened to you?”
After Ruslan joins us in the kitchen, satisfied that this place is secure, Moira and I take to her enclosed back garden where we slowly walk arm in arm.
“It was horrible,” I say softly. “One minute, we were in the air and the next, it was like I weighed nothing and we were falling. I don’t remember anything else about the crash, just waking up in the hospital a few days later.”
It pours out of me. Now that I’ve started, I can’t stop and every detail floods out of me to the music of Moira’s understanding hums and alarmed gasps.
I tell her about waking up in the hospital and receiving the news about my parents, about the cops being harsh with me and fudging the details slightly to make Ruslan my savior, then visiting my mom and seeing her in a coma.
Moira’s grip tightens on me. “I left flowers for your mom,” she says softly.
“There have been so many attacks on people, even around here. This isn’t the safe neighborhood it was when I moved here with Callum, that’s for sure.
” She wrinkles her nose slightly, casting her gaze out at her garden as we walk.
“I’m amazed you’re even on your feet. If I were in your shoes, I think I would be nothing more than a shell. ”
My chest tightens faintly and I glance back at the house. Ruslan stands in the frame of the backdoor, arms crossed and watching me. Even from here I can see the glint in his eye and the tension in his jaw. I have no doubt that he’d be by my side in half a second at the first sign of danger.
“Although,” Moira says, and her tone softens as she catches on to where I’m looking. “I suppose you have something to lift your spirits.”
My cheeks warm and I tear my gaze away from Ruslan. “Moira. It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it? Moira chuckles. “He watches you like someone’s about to open a hole in the floor and steal you away. We’ve looped half this garden and he hasn’t lost you once among the trees and shrubs. Dude’s obsessed.” She giggles to herself, hugging my arm.
I want to correct her but I can’t, not without telling her the whole truth.
It’s easier to let her believe that Ruslan’s obsessed with me because deep down, part of me enjoys that too.
My pulse races slightly knowing his eyes are on me, just as it did when he was gazing down at me while giving me a sponge bath.
“It’s his job,” I remind her.
“Sure, because you’re so integral to finding out what happened with that plane.”
“Everyone else is dead, Moira. I’m the only one left.”
“So he’s on survivor suicide watch? Is that why he’s watching you like a hawk?”
“Exactly!”
“Then why does he keep staring at your ass?”
“Moira!” I unloop my arm from hers and shove her away, feigning indignation while butterflies flutter in my gut.
Does he really stare at my ass?
We wander down to the patio at the end of her garden, and I sit on the smoothly carved stone bench while filling her in on the ‘gas leak’ at my parents’ house.
“A gas leak?” Moira lifts one brow. “Wow.”
“Yeah. I have no idea how I’m going to explain it to Mom when she wakes up.”
If she wakes up.
“I’m sorry, Ivy,” Moira murmurs. “I can’t imagine the weight you’re carrying about your father, and now the house.” Her face floods with sorrow and she grips my thigh. “Is there anything I can do?”
I shake my head. “Just… answer me when I call, I guess. Talking to you has been so…” My eyes close briefly. “It’s normal. Ordinary. Didn’t know how much I was missing that.”
“I’m here for you. Always. You know that.”
Groaning, I tip my head back and gaze up at the gorgeous blue sky, spreading my arms and legs to soak up the strong rays. “On top of that, I have to find an explanation as to why my dad had a passport with a weird last name. It was the only thing I saved from the fire.”
“Wow,” Moira scoffs under her breath. “That bastard.”
My head snaps up, my gaze locked on her. “What do you mean?”
Moira smiles strongly. “Nothing, I was just thinking about Callum, that’s all.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“Yes, I was.”
“Moira…” A sudden chill steals down my bare arms. “Do you know something?”
“No.” She speaks abruptly and stands. “Come on, we should get back.”
“No, tell me!” I catch her wrist in my grip and jerk her back down. “Oh, my God, what do you know? Moira, tell me!”
Moira isn’t able to look me in the eye and her shoulders droop. “You don’t need more pain, Ivy.”
“You said it! Moira!”
“Okay, fine!” She slaps her hands down on her thighs and faces me. “Your father was having an affair.”
“What? With who?”